Surprise, surprise. Workers in Britain, many of whom have seen a decline in their standard of living while the very rich in their country have become much richer, have turned their backs on the European Union and a globalized economy that is failing them and their children.

And it’s not just the British who are suffering. That increasingly globalized economy, established and maintained by the world’s economic elite, is failing people everywhere. Incredibly, the wealthiest 62 people on this planet own as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population — around 3.6 billion people. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the whole of the bottom 99 percent. The very, very rich enjoy unimaginable luxury while billions of people endure abject poverty, unemployment, and inadequate health care, education, housing and drinking water.

Could this rejection of the current form of the global economy happen in the United States? You bet it could.

During my campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, I’ve visited 46 states. What I saw and heard on too many occasions were painful realities that the political and media establishment fail even to recognize.

In the last 15 years, nearly 60,000 factories in this country have closed, and more than 4.8 million well-paid manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Much of this is related to disastrous trade agreements that encourage corporations to move to low-wage countries.

Despite major increases in productivity, the median male worker in America today is making $726 dollars less than he did in 1973, while the median female worker is making $1,154 less than she did in 2007, after adjusting for inflation.

Nearly 47 million Americans live in poverty. An estimated 28 million have no health insurance, while many others are underinsured. Millions of people are struggling with outrageous levels of student debt. For perhaps the first time in modern history, our younger generation will probably have a lower standard of living than their parents.

Sen. Bernie Sanders told USA TODAY on Tuesday he is prepared for a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia if the party doesn’t take more progressive stances on trade, the minimum wage, climate change and other issues in its platform.

The Vermont senator said there are “a lot of very good and progressive” provisions in the document approved Saturday in St. Louis by the 15-member Platform Drafting Committee, which includes supporters of Sanders and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

But Sanders and his supporters will be working with labor, environmental and human rights groups to call for amendments when the draft goes to the full 187-member Platform Committee for final approval in Orlando July 8 and 9. If he doesn’t succeed there, Sanders said he will have the votes to bring amendments to the convention floor in Philadelphia and “we are certainly intending to do that.”

Sanders acknowledged it would be easier if his changes were adopted in Orlando. A floor fight at the convention could prolong it by requiring debates and votes. Asked whether that bothered him, Sanders didn’t seem to mind.

“The middle class of this country has been in decline for 40 years and we need to make it clear that we stand with working families in this country and we are prepared to take on powerful special interests,” he said. “That is what the Democratic Party has got to stand for.”

Straight,humane talk from Bernie Sanders/ "The global economy is not working for majority of people" in US or world https://t.co/8SgllesYY4

As a concession to Bernie Sanders and his large electoral following in the Democratic primaries, the Clinton campaign got the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to let him appoint five delegates to the Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee. Hillary Clinton got to name six representatives to the committee. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the DNC, named four. Considering that the prestigious and vocal progressives of the Sanders camp were outnumbered, you might think that the Clinton campaign had offered nothing more than a symbolic gesture — and you would be partially correct.

The delegates appointed by Clinton and Wasserman-Schultz rejected many of the proposals put forth by Sanders’ appointees. As Common Dreams reported on June 25:

During a 9-hour meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday, members of the DNC’s platform drafting committee voted down a number of measures proposed by Bernie Sanders surrogates that would have come out against the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), fracking, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. At the same time, proposals to support a carbon tax, Single Payer healthcare, and a $15 minimum wage tied to inflation were also disregarded.

In a statement, Sanders said he was “disappointed and dismayed” that representatives of Hillary Clinton and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz rejected the proposal on trade put forth by Sanders appointee Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), despite the fact that the presumed nominee has herself come out against the 12-nation deal.

“Inexplicable” was how Sanders described the move, adding: “It is hard for me to understand why Secretary Clinton’s delegates won’t stand behind Secretary Clinton’s positions in the party’s platform.”

The last point is especially striking because as Common Dreams noted, during the primary campaign, Clinton claimed that she had earnestly become an opponent of the TPP — under pressure from the appeal Sanders’ opposition to it was generating — after being an adamant supporter of the mega-trade deal as secretary of state.

..

The Platform Drafting Committee is, in essence, enabling Clinton to run against certain provisions within the TPP up through the election. Then if she wins, President Obama can attempt to pass the trade agreement through a lame duck Congress without Clinton ever having to go back on her current politically necessitated position.

The United States of America should not treat Puerto Rico like a colony. That's not a radical idea.

At 3:34 p.m., as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was just getting going with his speech against the House-passed Puerto Rico emergency bill, presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont walked to his desk and asked for a question.

“It’s a long question, but I certainly want my friend from New Jersey to respond,” said Sanders. “Is this legislation smacking of the worst form of colonialism, in the sense that it takes away all of the important democratic rights of the American citizens of Puerto Rico? That basically, four Republicans who likely believe in strong austerity programs will essentially be running that island for the indefinite future?”

“Absolutely,” said Menendez.

With that, Sanders had given his first remarks from the floor of the Senate in months — and from a familiar, embattled position. Even after losing Puerto Rico’s presidential primary, Sanders has opposed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, usually referred to as PROMESA, calling it a shockingly undemocratic attempt to impose austerity measures on the debt-laden island. The bill would create an emergency board, dominated by Republicans, able to govern without accountability — and to immediately lower the island’s minimum wage.

As he straddles between his duties in the Senate and his ambitions as a presidential candidate, Sanders has repeatedly warned that PROMESA is unacceptable. “I’m going to vote against it, and I’m going to do everything I can to defeat a horrific bill,” Sanders told reporters on the way into Tuesday’s Democratic luncheon. Inside, according to several senators, Sanders made a case against PROMESA similar to the one he made on the floor.

Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders says he’ll try to block Senate consideration of a bill that would require nationwide labeling of food with genetically modified products, but with a less stringent labeling requirement than the one included in Vermont’s law.

Individual senators can put a hold on legislation, blocking it from coming up for debate unless backers can muster 60 votes. The Vermont independent says he prepared to resort to that tactic.

Sanders’ comments come just days before Vermont is slated to become the first state to require labeling of genetically modified food.

A progressive congressional candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defeated her opponent in New York’s primaries Tuesday night, although another Sanders-supported candidate — a Social Security expert in central New York — lost his election.

Zephyr Teachout soundly bested organic farmer Will Yandik in New York’s 19th Congressional District on Tuesday. Although she received a boost from Sanders’ endorsement, Teachout has long been a progressive favorite and was already known statewide after running against incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in the 2014 Democratic primary.

Although Cuomo won — 62 percent to 34 percent — the fact that Teachout pulled so much support away from a sitting governor was impressive. She had no previous electoral experience, spent nearly no money and had a bare-bones campaign operation. In that election, Teachout did particularly well in the Hudson Valley, where the moderate 19th District is located.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not endorse in the race, but many Democrats were excited about Yandik because of his ties to the district and his appeal to independents. He said he was in regular touch with the DCCC. Teachout will face Republican John Faso in November to replace outgoing Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.).

Sanders’ candidate didn’t fare as well in New York’s 24th District. There, Eric Kingson lost to Colleen Deacon, who had the backing of the DCCC and both the state’s U.S. senators. Deacon worked for the mayor of Syracuse and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and often stressed her experience as a single mother living on food stamps. She will face incumbent Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) in the fall.

Kingson co-founded the national organization Social Security Works and started the Strengthen Social Security Coalition, which comprises more than 300 organizations focused on strengthening and expanding Social Security. He has also called for a single-payer health care system, which has been a signature issue for Sanders.

While Bernie Sanders may have conceded defeat in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, his legacy lives on creating a shift in the ideologies of the Democratic party and forever changing its views on cannabis.

“We are trying to do nothing less than transform the Democratic party,” Sanders said during a recent C-SPAN interview. And with over 12 million supporters in his pocket, he’s forcing the party to embrace more progressive positions, specifically with cannabis.

Sanders, an unexpected and formidable opponent in the race to become president, was the only major presidential candidate to publicly call for an end to federal marijuana prohibition. He even introduced legislation in the Senate to do so.

This move enthralled a generation of young, liberal voters, who will soon represent the largest generation in the electorate. In turn, it’s forced Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to reverse her stance on marijuana.

..

Under pressure from Sanders and his supporters to embrace a “political revolution” Clinton has been forced to pull the party in a more liberal direction in an attempt to gain the support of the youth vote.

Marijuana activists feel this could be a real tipping point for their movement as candidates fight over millennials. With a majority of young voters favoring an end to marijuana prohibition, Sanders’ call for legalization is forcing the candidates to take a more liberal approach to cannabis.

Clinton has gone on record saying that she now supports the use of medicinal marijuana for people with “extreme conditions.” A stark change from her stance in 2008. In addition, she recently sided with Sanders on proposed marijuana policy stating, “I agree completely with the idea that we have got to stop imprisoning people who use marijuana. Therefore, we need more states, cities, and the federal government to begin to address this so that we don’t have this terrible result that Senator Sanders was talking about where we have a huge population in our prisons for nonviolent, low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana.”

Today, thousands of undocumented workers face horrific working conditions and they can't fight back because they have no legal rights.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders‘s campaign is raising money to help send his delegates to Philadelphia next month for the Democratic National Convention.

In an email Tuesday, the Vermont senator’s campaign encouraged supporters to donate $2.70 before Thursday’s midnight Federal Election Commission deadline to help get the campaign’s nearly 1,900 delegates to the convention. It can cost more than $4,000 per delegate, the campaign said.

“Our delegates are not wealthy campaign contributors. They’re not party insiders or establishment elites. They’re working folks, and it’s not easy for many of them to fly to Philly and stay in hotels for a week,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in the email.

“We really need to have all of our delegates at the Democratic convention because we expect there could be critical votes for the party platform and electoral process. We’d hate to fall short on these votes because some of our delegates couldn’t afford to go to the convention.”

Weaver said hotels are booked months in advance and then sold at higher prices, adding that lobbyists plan “all sorts of fancy parties.” The political establishment can easily navigate it, he said.

“Our political revolution is not made up of people like that,” he continued. “Our folks need help to get to the convention and stay there.”

For the moment I’ve taken the ‘downrates’ off of the frontpage, and they can only be clicked/viewed at the bottom of the post itself. A ‘downrate’ actually pushes an article up on the ‘trending topics’ list as that is based on total votes, not ‘likes’. If you find content objectionable… the best way to bury it is to ignore it. If you do want to downrate the policy is you must explain that downrate as a comment. Since at the moment I haven’t had time to go investigating the recent spurt of dislikes, I ‘assume’ most are accidents due to the spacing issue… but went ahead and removed the ability to do anything but uprate from the frontpage regardless…

Morning Liepar, Is there any way you could also look into changing the thumb or highlight it after a vote? I continually try to re vote after having done so previously as I can’t remember if I did it before. ;-(

I wonder if it’s possible to move the down thumb and reply away from each other in the comment section?
I have hit down thumb more than once when I meant to hit reply. Luckily it takes a while to go through and I think I’ve corrected them by just hitting up thumb before it registers.

WHEW, ME TOO! THE COLOR CHANGE IS A GOOD IDEA, I TRY TO WATCH TO SEE THE NUMBER CHANGE, BUT AGE, MEMORY, ETC. ARE ALL FACTORS AND THIS WOULD BE A GOOD EFFORT, WORTH A TRY IN THIS EVOLVING PROCESS. AS PEACHPI MENTIONED I TOO FIND THE SPACING OF THE UP/DOWN-COMMENT AREA A BIT TIGHT.

I TOO LIKE THE RULE THAT A DOWN VOTE MUST BE FOLLOWED WITH AN EXPLANATION, IT EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN A MISTAKE OR AN OPENING/ OPPORTUNITY TO EXPAND THE CONVERSATION AND PERSPECTIVES.

@ LIEPAR, THANKS FOR ALL THE WORK AND EFFORT TO SOLICIT COMMUNITY INPUT TO MAKE TPW A GREAT NEST FOR AS MANY AS POSSIBLE, RATHER THAN ARBITRARY EDICTS.

Could we just have uprates alone? A non-vote can be its own downvote. I cannot get over the idea that there is a unkind spying eye.

Robert Frost:

A Mood Apart

Once down on my knees to growing plants
I prodded the earth with a lazy tool
In time with a medley of sotto chants;
But becoming aware of some boys from school
I stopped my song and almost heart,For any eye is an evil eye
That looks in onto a mood apart.

Good morning @nomandates, get some rest! Seems like this week will be full of work, so I’m up even earlier than normal and replying back to posts/comments a bit less, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel… just hoping it is a 4 day weekend and not a train!

I think it would be helpful to add something at the beginning similar to the Pootie diaries: that is “the news and hangout for Bernie Kossacks. If you do not have anything constructive or just wish to disrupt the diary by bashing Bernie, there are plenty of other diaries, including Hillary Hangouts or Views to support your candidate. ”

The late Pootie Queen did this in every diary at the beginning and it helped with the trolls. Not all of them, but a good majority of them

Happy hump day, sisters and brothers!
Great news in the BNR. The MSM us tying itself in knots because Bernie is the energizer bunny – he just keeps going and going. They try and shut him up and he gets louder and louder. There’s a lesson in this for America.
July will probably bring many surprises, let’s be ready for some good news as truth gets revealed about the goings on at State. Her majesticness might find herself in a tight spot in coming weeks. Hoping for a big reveal before the convention. Will it happen? Here’s to hope – the only thing that pushes us onward.
Have a beautiful day, my friends!

I had contacted them by email, though hadn’t heard anything back yet. Thanks for the update, Dro! I’d been wondering how it was developing.

And I especially appreciate his words of encouragement, and his sense that it is possible that Bernie may still receive the nomination at the convention — that the superdelegates may see that voting for him is the better choice. I’m still hoping!

The Platform Drafting Committee is, in essence, enabling Clinton to run against certain provisions within the TPP up through the election. Then if she wins, President Obama can attempt to pass the trade agreement through a lame duck Congress without Clinton ever having to go back on her current politically necessitated position.

The ‘gold standard’ of another worthless, wishy washy Clinton waffle which I believe she will regret.

I haven’t seen any polling expressing any overwhelming support for the disastrous TPP. And even trump for all his foolishness has totally outflanked her in his total opposition and is sharpening his attacks against ALL trade agreements. Waffling in this current anti establishment environment isn’t gonna wash with the electorate on this issue, it’s a morally indefensible and politically dumb position to take.

The broad spear phishing campaign targeting the e-mail accounts of Hillary Clinton campaign officials has yielded hackers a wide assortment of internal memos and other communications, according to documents provided to The Smoking Gun.

…

In a series of e-mails, members of the rope line platoon reported on the movement of journalists, especially Dan Merica, a CNN producer covering the Clinton campaign.

After an advance staffer wrote to report that an aggressive French journalist was “at stage right,” the Merica tracking kicked in.

“Watch out for Dan Merica center right,” a press aide warned. Eight minutes later, an advance team member wrote, “Dan Merica stage left.” A minute later Hamilton advised colleagues, “French journos and dan merica heading to stage right.” Moments later, a new Merica update came from an advance team member: “Dan America is on backstage bleachers.” Less than a minute later, the staffer gave an update: “I’m with dan America on back stage bleachers.”

It appears Merica was being secretly tracked by campaign workers concerned that the CNN employee might detonate a question if he got too close to any of the Clintons.

When Clinton visited Chicago in mid-March, the local press pool included Lynn Sweet, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. In an e-mail to Hamilton (“Subject: Lynn Sweet”), campaign traveling press secretary Nick Merrill advised, “Let’s keep an eye on her.” Hamilton immediately replied, “Yes. I’m sitting next to her on the bus.”

Think it’s time to increase the readership of TPW, by having this be the SOLE place posting the BNR.
It has gotten beyond toxic TOP, now just giving a platform to criticize Bernie Sanders for not agreeing with Mrs. Greenspan and using the WashingtonPost CC as a whip.

LD: respect what you’ve created with BNR. Why keep posting it TOP now that we have TPW?

my ‘goal’ was to continue to the convention (but real life events threw that haywire after the year straight run!), and I still intend to post ‘sometimes’ at the other place because I do have a good deal of ‘followers’ that I can continue to direct here as well.. but those posts will be more issue specific or ’roundups’ of TPW material.

plus I’m still sorting out the android/some browser issues so not everyone has been able to make the transition.

I agree though I understand LD’s reasoning.
I must say though, as there are fewer and fewer places for the HRC band of bullies to attack Sanders and his supporters, the BNR is becoming a feasting zone for trolls and even someone like Teacherken (whose become quite the zealot this campaign season), right or wrong, needs to argue about silly things. Amazing study in group think going on over there.

I have pretty much stopped going to DK after 12 years. I think it’s a larger issue than this campaign season. I think the place has started to experience the first signs of its coming irrelevancy as the progressive wing (heh) of the Dem party goes to battle with the centrists, to put it simply. Everything evolves and changes.

Does anyone watch Wayward Pines? When I checked in on BNR today for the first time in a while, the onslaught of trolls reminded me of the abbies from that series! Ha! Good times!

Ridiculous is right! We are at the point where, “they can freeze people for thousands of years but have to farm for food outside the fence??”
Finished The Americans. Love!
We savored Orphan Black and have only one left to watch. Love, love!
I haven’t started GoT. I’ve heard it’s very violent. Is it anymore so than the shows I just listed? Someone told me if I grew up on Tom and Jerry, I can handle Game of Thrones. I love an actress in that show. The one who played Ann Boleyn in The Tudors (Natalie Dormer).

It is more violent and graphic than the above listed shows for sure.. but it’s actually a bit tamer than Spartacus or some of the other period pieces out there.. all things considered.

The finale of Orphan Black was fantastic! I read that they will be only doing one more season and that depresses me a bit! Though on the flip side Hell On Wheels is back on and Peaky Blinders (probably my favorite show at the moment) is available in full on Netflix! woohoo!

Actually, I disagree. I’m an old DP professional-mainframe-before most of the young ones were alive. I think Liepar has done a great job so far, but he is burdened with the limitations of WordPress. There are still a number of technical issues that abound here and I think it best we allow him time to do fixes with just us loyalists, before being flooded. It is a lot easier to find a bug in a small set than a large one.

The exits from DK are continuing. Kos may even get the credit of Dexit- leaving the party. I see more and more talk of that. I say, give it some time.

Thanks Dro, I tried to say that better a little above. Since I have yet to been able to hire a professional to tackle the problems yet I moved the paypal donation jar to the bottom of the page so its not as upfront… until I can put my full focus into getting that help the donations will go towards (its harder than I thought it would be). Most of the issues are wordpress limitations (but they can be overcome by the right bits of code here and there and especially someone smarter than myself), and It’s certainly easier getting the minor issues worked out myself with the smaller ‘alpha/beta audience’, before we get a bigger audience..which I know we will, as I continue to make outreach to some pretty ‘respectable’ activists, etc who are interested in posting their own material here, as well as helping with activism organization, etc.

As it becomes less acceptable to criticize the presumed nominee or the party & positions more and more people will look for places for more open discussion as well, and I welcome those people here as long as long as civility/conversation inspires and it’s not all just all name calling.

Hopefully after the whole work thing this Thursday I can get some of these other functionality issues cleared up at a much faster rate.

And as always a big thanks to @Demeter-Rising for all the help and suggestions.

At the moment its not necessarily the amount needed (though every bit is more hours I can get from them), my problem has been in even finding someone! I’ve reached out to the local colleges, via progressive.work, through word of mouth, and even dared venture to craiglist and other types of places, and so far haven’t had much luck in results.

@LieparDestin, I have a computer guy friend who is a great resource for many of us in my neck of the woods. I gave him a call — he says he really doesn’t know WordPress, but he may have other resources for you — other folks you can get in touch with.

He asked for more information — I’m going to send him the link to the site, but if you could send me a message with your contact info, I could pass it on to him. Or I could send you his, or introduce you both by email. Whatever works best!

It wa/is home to many…flying into this nest will be hard. I think the current arrangement wherein nomandates posts there and LD posts here is working (even the mean little mouse was nice!?!) although some can’t help but BAD. I think unless we get more of the crap that was flagged by many of us the other day (and for which many received a TO) we just do our best to ignore them. And, when one of us has been sucked into the cesspool we support.

At this point the only diaries I even bother with are MB (less often now), LeftyCoaster, and poor WB Reeves. I don’t see others really (well TomP had one, but he hadn’t written anything in ages). Speaking of which, anyone heard from OPOL?

I read something recently — may have been on C99? — where several Kossacks met OPOL for lunch. According to that report, he’s doing just fine. Disgusted with what TOP has become, of course, but otherwise okay. I can’t remember what may have been said about his plans to write/post elsewhere?

A super-PAC backing Hillary Clinton has accepted $200,000 in donations from a company holding multiple contracts with the federal government — despite a ban on such contributions.

According to a review of contributions by The Hill, Boston-based Suffolk Construction made two contributions of $100,000 to Priorities USA, which is backing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

At the time it made the contributions, Suffolk held multiple contracts worth $976,560 with the Department of Defense for maintenance and construction projects at a Naval base in Newport, R.I., and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., according to the government website USASpending.gov.
Suffolk — which, by Forbes’s estimate, brings in some $2 billion in revenue annually — also donated $10,000 in 2015 to Right to Rise, a super-PAC that supported Republican Jeb Bush’s now-defunct presidential bid.http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/285269-exclusive-pro-hillary-group-takes-200k-in-banned-donations

Hi @ArthurPoet! Welcome (and tell your friends!). I’ve had my own problems at some of the alternative sites as well but theres good people around so I try and stop by as often as I can (which admittedly isn’t much at the moment), but not sure how much crossposting, etc I will do for various reasons.